Stiglitz: Europe’s austerity is suicide

Europe headed towards ‘suicide’ on austerity: Stiglitz – BusinessTimes

NOBEL Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said Europe is in a "dire" situation as a focus on austerity pushes the continent towards "suicide".

"There has never been any successful austerity programme in any large country," Mr Stiglitz, 69, told reporters in Vienna on Thursday. "The European approach definitely is the least promising. I think Europe is headed to a suicide."

Politicians across the 27 European Union members are implementing austerity measures totalling about 450 billion euros (S$738 billion) amid a sovereign-debt crisis. At the same time the debt of the euro region rose last year to the highest since the start of the single currency as governments increased borrowing to plug budget deficits and fund bailouts of fellow nations crippled by the fiscal crisis.

Best city to live cheaply

The best place to retire overseas on a budget – USNews, Kathleen Peddicord

If an affordable cost of living is your priority in choosing where to retire, take a look at Cuenca, Ecuador. This city is one of the world's best places to retire overseas on a budget.

Cuenca is a beautiful colonial city in an interesting and diverse country. The health care is high quality, honest, and inexpensive. The climate is spring-like and pleasant 12 months of the year. And Cuenca's large and growing expat community is one of Latin America's most diverse and well-blended.

Wealthy cannot escape anymore

Why the party is ending for the rich – USNews, Rick Newman

It has been a great decade to be rich.

Since 2001, high earners have enjoyed the best of all worlds. Tax rates at the top of the income ladder have drifted down to the lowest levels since World War II. Incomes have stagnated for the middle class, but they've continued to rise for the wealthy. And recent policies meant to combat the recession and the 2008 financial crisis have benefited the wealthy more than others.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]

In the stock market, a "correction" usually sets in when stock values get ahead of underlying fundamentals. Something similar is about to happen to the wealthy.

European economic crisis – the scale

27 statistics about the European economic crisis that are almost too crazy to believe – Economic Collapse Blog

The economic crisis in Europe continues to get worse and eventually it is going to unravel into a complete economic nightmare.  All over Europe, national governments have piled up debts that are completely unsustainable.  But whenever they start significantly cutting government spending it results in an economic slowdown.  So politicians in Europe are really caught between a rock and a hard place.  They can’t keep racking up these unsustainable debts, but if they continue to cut government spending it is going to push their economies into deep recession and their populations will riot.  Greece is a perfect example of this.  Greece has been going down the austerity road for several years now and they are experiencing a full-blown economic depression, riots have become a way of life in that country and their national budget is still not anywhere close to balanced.  Americans should pay close attention to what is going on in Europe, because this is what it looks like when a debt party ends.  Most of the nations in the eurozone have just started implementing austerity, and yet unemployment in the eurozone is already the highest it has been since the euro was introduced.  It has risen for 10 months in a row and is now up to 10.8 percent.  Sadly, it is going to go even higher.  As economies across Europe slide into recession, that is going to put even more pressure on the European financial system.  Most Americans do not realize this, but the European banking system is absolutely enormous.  It is nearly four times the size that the U.S. banking system is.  When the European banking system crashes (and it will) it is going to reverberate around the globe.  The epicenter of the next great financial crisis is going to be in Europe, and it is getting closer with each passing day.

US Tax mayhem

24 outrageous facts about taxes in the US that will blow your mind – Economic Collapse Blog

The U.S. tax code is a complete and utter abomination and it needs to be thrown out entirely.  Nobody in their right mind would ever read the whole thing - it is over 3 million words long.  Each year, Americans spend billions of hours and hundreds of billions of dollars trying to comply with federal tax requirements.  Sadly, it is the honest, hard working Americans in the middle class that always get hit the hardest.  The tax code is absolutely riddled with loopholes that big corporations and the ultra-wealthy use to minimize their tax burdens as much as possible.  Many poor people do not pay any income taxes at all.  The dishonest are rewarded for cheating on their taxes (if they can get away with it) and the ultra-wealthy have moved trillions of dollars to offshore tax havens where they can avoid U.S. taxation altogether.  Our system is incredibly unfair to the millions of hard working people in the middle class and upper middle class that drag themselves out of bed and go to work each day and try to do the right thing.  In addition, the current U.S. tax system is incredibly inefficient, it diverts a tremendous amount of resources away from more valuable economic activities, and it has chased thousands of businesses and trillions of dollars out of the United States.  The U.S. tax code is such a complete and utter mess at this point that it can never be "fixed".  The only rational thing to do is to abolish it completely, and any politician that tells you otherwise is lying to you.

Best cities for trendy people

America’s best cities for hipsters – Travel&Leisure, Katrina Brown Hunt

1. Seattle, WA
2. Portland, OR
3. San Francisco, CA
4. New Orleans, LO
5. Portland, MA
6. Providence, RI
7. Austin, TX
8. San Juan, PR
9. Philadelphia, PA
10. Denver, CO

Fastest Growing US Cities

Fastest Growing US Cities – CNNMoney

#		Population	Growth 2000-2010
1	Charlotte, NC	1,249,449	64.6%
2	Raleigh, NC	884,891	63.4%
3	Cape Coral, FL	530,920	60.8%
4	Provo, UT	482,819	59%
5	Austin, TX	1,362,416	51.1%
6	Las Vegas, NV	1,886,001	43.5%
7	McAllen, TX	728,825	39.3%
8	Knoxville, TN	558,696	33.1%
9	Greenville, SC	400,492	32.5%
10	San Antonio, TX	1,758,210	32.4%